Explanations for Forgetting

What is inference theory?

Suggests we forget because our long term memories become confused (disrupted) by other information while it is coded

What are the two explanations of forgetting?

• Cue dependant forgetting (State and context)

• Inference theory

What are the 2 types of inference?

• Proactive

• Retroactive

What is proactive interference?

Old information disrupts new. Interference works forward in time, when old information already stored interferes with recalling something new

What is retro-active interference?

New information disrupts old. Interference works backward in time, new information being stored interferes with recalling of old information

How does similarity impact interference theory?

Interference is more likely to occur when the two pieces of information are similar, this is due to response competition

How does time impact interference theory?

Interference is less likely to occur when there is a large gap between the instances of learning

AO3 Interference - Schmidt et al (2000)

Investigated retroactive interference using the memory of childhood street names, 11 79 year olds were sent a questionnaire containing a map of the area around their old school without street names. It was found the more times an individual moved home, the fewer street names recalled, a negative correlation between number of times moved house and street names recalled. This suggests retroactive interference, the process of remembering new streets interferes with the previously stored LTM of old streets, making recall of older names harder

AO3 Interference - Greenberg and Underwood (1950)

Asked participants to learn 10 paired word lists. Then gave the participants 48 hours before recall. This was repeated 4 times. It was found the number of correctly recalled word pairs decreased the more word pairs had been learnt previously. This provides evidence for proactive interference, as the previously learnt word combinations caused confusion in the coding of the later word lists, interfering with the accurate recall of later learnt word lists

What is cue dependant forgetting?

Information in LTM but forgetting happens due to absence of appropriate cues/prompts encoded at the same time (encoding specificity principle)

What are context dependent cues?

Aspects of the external environment work as cues to memory (sights, sounds, smells). So being in a difference place would inhibit memory as we would lack environmental cues

AO3 Context dependent cues - Godden and Baddeley (1975)

Studied divers, asking them to learn new material either on dry land or while underwater, then tested either on dry land or water. It was found recall was worse if in different context and best if same. Eg information learnt underwater was recalled best underwater. This suggests being in the same environment for both learning and recall aids recall by providing context cues

What are state dependant cues?

Aspects of our internal environment work as cues to memory (emotions, drugs, state of arousal etc). So being in different emotional state would inhibit memory as we would lack state dependant cues. Such as being under the influence as the time of learning but being sober at recall

AO3 State dependant cues - Overton (1972)

Asked participants to learn material either drunk or sober. Then tested them on this information when they were drunk or sober. It was found recall was worse if in different internal state and best if in same internal state. Eg information learnt drunk was recalled best drunk. This suggests being in the same state for both learning and recall aids recall by providing state dependant cues

What are category/organisational dependant cues?

Providing cues that relate to the organisation/category of memories may aid recall, as it’s easier to find a file if the draws are labelled. The most effective cues have fewer things associated with them. The lack of organisation/category cues may inhibit memory

Eg a list of words with category headings aids the recall of the words within the lost

AO3 Category/organisational dependent cues - Tulving and Pealstone (1966)

Asked participants to learn 48 words. The participants either used free recall (answering in any order) or recall to match 12 4 word categories. It was found participants recalled significantly more in the category condition. This suggests the categories acted as cues and aided recall

AO3 - Real practical application

Psychological research into how forgetting works has real practical applications, students can develop effective revision strategies and theories like context cues improving recall have been used in the development of an effective police technique called the cognitive interview

AO3 - Only explain temporary loss of information

Interference and cue theory only explain a temporary loss of information, they aren’t a true explanation of forgetting. This would be the permanent loss of information from long term memory. It could be interference involves over-writing other information or just makes it inaccessible

AO3 - Day to day forgetting

Interference only explains forgetting when two sets of information are similar or learnt close together in time. This means the theory struggles to explain many day to day examples of forgetting such as forgetting someones birthday

AO3 - Artificial research

Evidence on interference mostly comes from artificial lab experiments using artifical tasks. The external validity of these findings may be low, interference may not occur to the same extent in more real life settings and scenarios, which lowers confidence in interference as an explanation of forgetting